Mohammad
Piri, who has earned global acclaim for his work in petroleum engineering,
begins his new appointment July 1.

"I am
pleased and honored to accept this position," says Piri, who is currently an
associate professor of petroleum engineering. "And I'm very happy to be part of
the University of Wyoming."

The joint
appointment means Piri will continue his
work in petroleum and chemical engineering while giving him a chance to lead an
effort to build linkages among the College
of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Energy Resources, other
colleges at UW that have active energy programs, and the private sector.

Piri heads
up the Piri
Research Group at UW, which studies interfacial and pore-scale transport in
porous media. This work is critical to understanding how fluids, such as natural
gas, flow through pores in geologic formations. He also co-directs (with Felipe Pereira, SER professor of mathematics)
the Center
for the Fundamentals of Subsurface Flow, a multidisciplinary team of UW
faculty who conduct broad research leading to computer simulation of fluid flow
in porous media.

Earlier this
year, Piri oversaw the installation of the most advanced high-resolution 3-D
X-ray microscope available, making UW the first university to put the
state-of-the-art tool in the hands of faculty and researchers to increase their
understanding of underground reservoirs of oil and natural gas. The
installation was the second in a three-phase program. The third phase calls for
installing nano-level imaging capabilities to map the smallest of media and
equip the facility, as a whole, to gather images from meter to nanometer
resolution.

"Mohammad
has a track record of research that shows innovation, creativity and
scholarship at the highest level," SER Director Mark Northam says. "SER is
extremely fortunate to have an engineer of his caliber as one of our
distinguished faculty."

Northam says
Piri's interaction with private-sector partners has enabled him to advance his
contribution to reservoir characterization and simulation rapidly.

"We see this
as an opportunity to extend the reach of our work in the College of Engineering
and at UW," says David Bagley, department head of chemical and petroleum
engineering. "It also allows us to leverage our resources to keep pace with
demands of building knowledge in this field."

Photo:
Associate Professor Mohammad Piri will continue his work at UW under a joint
appointment involving the School of Energy Resources and the Chemical and
Petroleum Engineering Department in the College of Engineering and Applied
Science. (UW Photo)